[BigV]

just as monocultures in agriculture are especially vulnerable to catastrophic failure, vastly more exposed to such failures than polycultures that have more diversity, including more options for resistance to a "fatal single bullet", monocultures in economics are just as vulnerable.

They aggregate power and capital to themselves, which is great for the shareholders, I suppose, but they're still vulnerable and when they fail, they fail big. Being maximally efficient in every possible way is not always best. One man's superfluity and excess is another man's crumple zone. One man's duplication of effort is another man's redundancy and backup. Buying local has numerous advantages, not the least of which is helping to keep your neighbor, who may well be your customer as well as your vendor, solvent enough to stay in business, and keep you in business.

This weekend I went shopping with my BD and told her these things. She's very sharp, but still feels she can't "afford" the extra cents to shop locally instead of the big box stores. This is primarily because she's not been informed about the complete costs for the slightly cheaper retail price for the widget she's buying.